A ringtone is a sound played on a mobile communication device, e.g. on a mobile cellular phone, to announce an incoming phone call. A ringtone is typically selected by the user of the phone receiving the call. A ringback tone is a sound played on a phone mobile communication device when calling another phone. Typically, the tone is chosen by the owner of the dialed phone. A video ringtone or video ringback tone is similar, but uses a video clip rather than an audio sound.
Prior U.S. patent applications 60/771,883 and 60/772,564, incorporated into U.S. Ser. No. 11/544,938 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,816), define a variation of a video ringtone in which the video clip is chosen by the calling party, to be displayed on the called mobile communication device. These patent applications also disclose a community server (known as the “community server”), an Internet-based server that allows users to choose video clips to be distributed to their friends (or “buddies”). These patent applications discuss a variety of other opportunities to present a video clip. For example at the end of a call between two mobile communication devices, each might see video clip: one chosen by the user of that phone, or one chosen by the user of the other phone, or one chosen by the community server.
Prior U.S. patent application 60/893,647 describes a mobile communication device which downloads clips and associates the clips with their contact in the contact list. The contact list application then displays the clips for calls with the contact.